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Comment by tuna-piano | Hacker News Reader

1. Weeks ago (and still?), tons of people were complaining that the federal government should take over procurement and distribution of medical supplies.

2. Now, the federal government is taking over some procurement and distribution of medical supplies. More complaints on this method.

There are certainly legitimate complaints to be had with state procurement, federal procurement, communication gaps, problems with distribution priority, etc... but I'm left confused as to the shock that the federal government is seizing supplies?

Isn't that what people wanted when they asked for federal government managed procurement+distribution?

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If this is a serious question: People wanted the Federal government to act as a single purchaser to source and transparently distribute material to the states, leveraging efficiencies of scale and a view of the whole situation.

No one was asking for the federal government to seize already purchased material and do things with it with zero transparency or accountability.

Well, they didn't actually seize anything here, they figured out that some shipment from China was going to hospitals instead of being intended for resale, then let those hospitals have it once things were straightened out.

The only question is how this transaction got wrongly flagged to begin with.

From the article it sounds like it was a pretty clandestine operation to begin with. He admits to paying 5x the normal prices for the masks, was picking them up in trucks marked as food service, taking different routes, etc. This is exactly the kind of shady transaction the government should be investigating. It could have just as easily been some price speculator buying those masks for all the Feds knew. Once they were assured it wasn't they let it go. The speculation about DHS was a little vague.

The doctor explains at the end of this short interview that he was actually appreciative of the FBI for intervening and why they did:

https://www.cnn.com/videos/health/2020/04/20/dr-andrew-arten...

"No one" is a bit overstatement. Someone is asking exactly for that. And federal government is complying with that request.

Parent is a great example of how Republicans constantly lie:

1. Ignoring that POTUS literally told states to fend for themselves on supplies, even pretending he didn’t. Obvious lie.

2. Pretending that the seizure is part of an undeclared federal supply management effort, when it is clearly more likely that these seizures are about political revenge, favoritism, and graft.

This sort of routine lying is positive evidence that all Republicans are in fact aware that their chosen party has descended into rank criminally and that they are knowingly and actively aiding the commission of felonies, i.e. they are guilty of the crime of conspiracy.

To the extent that these Republican antics are going to kill, for the pure sake of political revenge, citizens of blue states and states with Democratic governors, members of the Republican Party should not be surprised if they end up paying a very, very high price in the future.

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